Huawei’s consumer chief Richard Yu opened his teaser video with the big one. He unfolded last year’s MateBook Fold, the 18-inch flagship, closed it again, slid it into a kraft paper envelope, folded the envelope in half, and pulled a different computer out of it. That computer is the MateBook Fold S, a compact folding PC Huawei announced this morning in China. It shrinks the original toward book size and adds a small square screen on the outside, one the big Fold never had. The reveal was staged like a magic trick, and the trick is the product.
Folded, the S is about the size of a book, and Huawei says it slides into a small bag or a coat pocket. The teaser backs the claim up: Yu holds the folded machine in one hand, cover screen lit, the way you’d hold a paperback. Unfolded, it opens to a 14.7-inch display, enough room for documents, split windows, and real work. Huawei’s own pitch for the design is range: a big screen when you’re working, a small one when you’re moving, neither state asking you to carry the other.
Price: TBD
Where to buy: Huawei
The cover screen is the real news
Folding phones taught this lesson years ago. A phone you need to unfold just to check the time annoys you twenty times a day, so outer screens became standard. Folding PCs skipped that step: close one and it goes dark.
The S puts a small square display on its outer face, and in the teaser it stays lit while the machine is folded, showing the time at a glance. Huawei bills the S as the world’s first computer with a cover screen, and the panel does the job phone cover screens settled long ago: the quick check, the glance, the answer to “do I need to open this,” all handled without unfolding a thing. Opening a laptop is a bigger commitment than flipping a phone, so the glance carries more weight here. Three camera lenses run down a strip beside the little screen, so it shoots photos folded.
Huawei’s folding phones have had outer screens for years. A closed laptop that still answers quick questions is a different tool from one that’s dark until it’s opened.
The same big idea, folded smaller
The original MateBook Fold arrived in 2025 as the world’s first folding-screen PC, an 18-inch dual-layer OLED that folds down to a 13-inch footprint at 1.16 kilograms without its keyboard. We covered that machine when it launched, and it worked. It was a large, expensive flagship that proved a category more than it filled anyone’s pocket.
Size is the whole change here. At 14.7 inches unfolded, the screen sits closer to a conventional ultraportable, and the folded body trades the briefcase footprint for something nearer a hardcover book. Huawei showed it in Cloud Sea Blue, a dual-tone finish that splits a sea shade and a cloud tone across the body, with fine vertical lines running through the blue. Sky White and Magic Night Black are the other two colors, and all three lean soft and styled rather than corporate.
The styling is part of the pitch. Huawei shot the machine the way brands shoot accessories: in one hand, against soft color, with a plush cloud character glowing on the cover screen. Nothing about the presentation says office equipment. The original Fold, all black glass and business posture, looked like laboratory gear by comparison. A folding PC the size of a book, finished like a fashion piece and carried in a coat pocket, is Huawei aiming the category at buyers who choose with their eyes first. The S is built to find out whether that audience exists.
Reservations open Saturday
Reservations open Saturday, November 14 at 10:08 in the morning, China time, through Huawei Mall, authorized e-commerce platforms, Huawei Experience Stores, and authorized retailers. The machine lands in stores the same day for hands-on time.
It runs the latest HarmonyOS PC version, with new productivity features and new AI capabilities for the Notes app and WPS Office. Huawei hasn’t detailed those features yet, and the launch is China-only, with no US sale date announced.
What Huawei hasn’t shared
For a machine Huawei just showed on camera, the missing numbers are most of the spec sheet. No chip is named. There’s no weight, no battery figure, no resolution for either display, and no price. Reporting ahead of the announcement put the weight near 600 grams, roughly half the original’s, but Huawei hasn’t confirmed that figure, and it stays unconfirmed until the company prints it. Huawei also hasn’t said how the S handles typing, whether that’s an on-screen keyboard, a companion board, or both.
Price decides what the S is. The original starts at about $3,500 in China, flagship money, and a smaller fold only changes the category if the price shrinks with the footprint. Huawei says the full specs and highlights land in the coming days, ahead of Saturday’s reservations and a full launch event still to come.
Price: TBD
Where to buy: Huawei
The first Fold proved a PC could be a single sheet of glass. The S asks whether that sheet works better at book size, with a face that stays awake while it’s closed. If the weight and the price land where the smaller body suggests, this is the folding PC that stops being a demonstration and starts being the computer in your coat. The spec sheet settles it, and it’s days away.
